DESPITE the anticipated brief stint of Abdullah D. Mama-O as head of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), expectations from migrant stakeholders for the newly reassigned Cabinet official remain high.
Migrante International chairperson Joanna Concepcion urged Mama-O to initiate the stakeholder consultation to craft the operational guidelines of the DMW, which will be responsive to the needs of overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
“We call on the new Secretary to have a dialogue with grassroots migrant organizations who have crafted an electoral migrants agenda outlining our demands for aid, services, livelihood, social and welfare protection for all migrant workers,” Concepcion told BusinessMirror in a SMS.
Migrante was among the groups that expressed concern over the creation of the new DMW, since it could “institutionalize labor export.”
It noted it will only back the creation of such a department if the government will initate steps to help end “forced migration” and will scrap “the bankrupt labor export policy.”
For his part, LBS E-Solutions Corp. President Lito B. Soriano hopes Mama-O will still make significant headway in completing the implementing rules and regulation (IRR) for Republic Act 1164 or the Act Creating the Department of Migrant Workers.
“His immediate tasks are clear, fill up the positions, draft and issue the IRR of the law creating the new department,” Soriano said.
He noted the IRR will be crucial to initiate the transition for the government agencies to be absorbed by the DMW.
Among the affected agencies are the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB), Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO), National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO), and the National Maritime Polytechnic (NMP).
It will also include the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs (OUMWA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the office of the Social Welfare Attache (OSWA) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Soriano said he hopes Mama-O can complete these tasks before his term ends.
POEA Administrator Bernard P. Olalia said they already initiated the transition committee for DMW which is already drafting the said IRR.
The DMW is expected to become operational by next year.